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I encountered panspermia word in a new science article. The term is used to describe the theory that life on earth originated from extraterrestial microbes, more specifically from Mars. What do you think of the word, panspermia (I kinda like it), and/or the theory it describes? Here's the article:
Life on Earth Started HOW?
By Cathryn Conroy, Netscape News Editor
Bacteria. From Mars. Transported on meteorites. Stop laughing. This is not a joke. Serious international scientists with academic degrees and lofty work experience and fully-funded laboratories are suggesting that life on Earth could have arrived in the form of bacteria carried from Mars on meteorites. First brought forth in 1903, the theory is called "panspermia" and holds that life started elsewhere and was then spread through space. Fast forward almost 100 years. Scientists now think there is some plausibility to the idea. Recent discoveries of Martian meteorites on Earth have raised the possibility that bacterial spores could have hitched a ride on these rocks.
To test their theories, Gerda Horneck of the German Aerospace Centre and her colleagues in Cologne purposely sent millions of bacterial spores into outer space on a Russian satellite. No, they weren't trying to infect the solar system. They wanted to find out how those spores were affected by solar radiation. The results could tell them if this panspermia theory was something to be taken seriously--or laughed at. According to New Scientist, they learned that a single bacteria will not survive long enough in space to travel from one planet to another; however, meteorites protect the bacteria as it travels through space. Meteorites as small as a centimeter in diameter could carry life from one planet to another provided the journey was completed within a few years. "Early in the history of Mars and Earth, there could have been an exchange of biological material between the two planets," Benton Clark, a Mars exploration specialist at Lockheed Martin in Colorado, told New Scientist.
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Bacteria. From Mars. Transported on meteoritesI reckon it's a good word and a good theory. [Edit: actually I just discovered a website dedicated to panspermia http://www.panspermia.org/! Lots of fascinating stuff.] The life doesn't have to come from Mars on meteorites, of course - it could arrive on comets from distant nebulae as per Fred Hoyle's theories (once sneerily poo-pooed, now right back in fashion). Actually Fred Hoyle is credited as a pioneer in this area, though he is also known for "his seminal contributions to the theory of the structure of stars"  http://www.cf.ac.uk/maths/wickramasinghe/hoyle.html(advance apologies, this page has a background that really screws your eyes up)
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Does the word seems to refer to a theoretical territory, rather than to a theory (once you've removed the terra)? The set of all places so infected and from one source.
That bacteria could survive only a couple of years on a meteor in space suggests that life could not have come from beyond our solar system.
Is the theory based on much evidence or on conjecture, and if conjecture, what reason is there to favor it over one of a terrestrial origin of life?
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old hand
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The prefix Pan- means all, or everything, right? Same as Pantheism, Pantheon. So does this word indicate life from anywhere (but earth)? If it only refers to life perhaps coming from Mars then the coinage is very general. Mind you, at the time Mars probably seemed so exotic. I think the theory is certainly worth further research - better to sink money into that, than a really expensive, long-term international diplomacy conference in space! ISS might make some sense if everything down here wasn't shot to pieces.
I heard some speculation that the big question involves what happens in the primordial mass of cooling particles at the start of a solar system. When water combined with other elements has coagulated to a mere few kelvin in a *liquid form, certain sized clumps with the right ingredients will eventually(!) form that are particularly conducive to creating complex molecules, carbon strings, amino-acids, and well, what we call life. If anyone can explain any theories on the birth of solar systems and the relation to the birth of life, I'd love to hear 'em. Should any acceptable answer be possible, it will have to look at least that far back, I'd think.
As to alien spurs, let me just say one word: mushrooms :-)
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Carpal Tunnel
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God as a mushroom./As to alien spurs, let me just say one word: mushrooms :-)BY, consuelo's gonna love you for this connection!  The prefix Pan- means all, or everything, right? Same as Pantheism, Pantheon. So does this word indicate life from anywhere (but earth)? If it only refers to life perhaps coming from Mars then the coinage is very general. Mind you, at the time Mars probably seemed so exotic.I was also wondering why the coinage sounded so generic when it seemed to imply the specificity of Mars. Perhaps the scientist who coined it was theorizing based on that, exotic for the time as you say BY, life-on-Mars focus, but wanted to leave the door open to other planets, comets, asteroids, and other galaxies. I'll have to try to search-up the original theory and see if I can find a text verbatim. Unless Dr. Bill, or somebody else, beats me to it. But I wonder why they didn't coin a new term in modernity, as Geoff says, to more accurately depict their updated theorizing?
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I was also wondering why the coinage sounded so generic when it seemed to imply the specificity of MarsCheck out my Fred Hoyle comment, guys. The "return" to Mars is actually the most recent version of the theory. Originally it was about viruses (? I think, rather than bacteria) travelling on comets, wandering all over the universe from who knows where. But possibly from clouds/nebulae of "dark" organic matter. Seemed even more whacky than Erich von Daniken at the time. Edit - Here's some NASA stuff about how comets may have "seeded" the Earth with organic material: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast05apr_1.htmAnd here's something about the recently-launched comet probe, and the relevance of its mission. "Essentially we can think of them as chemical fossils of processes that happened over four billion years ago when the Solar System was young and the planets were forming.": http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2087000/2087291.stm
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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<<But I wonder why they didn't coin a new term in modernity>>
You are suggesting that modernity is a time or [inclusive] an era?
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Carpal Tunnel
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You are suggesting that modernity is a time or [inclusive] an era?
No, insel...just something more appropriate to the newly evolved theories of their work.
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Carpal Tunnel
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At WO'N's suggestion, I searched for "panspermia" and here is URL too long to write a précis on:: http://www.panspermia.org/whatdiff.htm
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Carpal Tunnel
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From Dr. Bill's link:
Perhaps our morality is grounded in Cosmic Ancestry. Our Cosmic Ancestors would have had access to the gene or array of genes for altruism. They would have programmed altruism to activate as soon as possible, because they would have been concerned for the success of the whole enterprise. That way, the more highly organized forms of life wouldn't be at the mercy of chance, hoping for heroism and love to emerge out of nowhere. It's possible.
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Our Cosmic Ancestors would want us to know about them. We can be pretty sure of that by putting ourselves into their shoes. Perhaps they installed in our genes a genetic memory of themselves. Such a genetic memory would account for the persistence of religions around the world. And it would explain in a new way why the mythologies of different religions are so similar, as the philospher Joseph Campbell tells us.
Taking the theory a step further, from microbes to beings,
the vistas of our new genetic technologies certainly open some intriguing possibilites, don't they?...since an advanced race would surely have had this knowledge.
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